Several hundred people were arrested Friday in New York during a demonstration organized by a Jewish movement against Israel’s bombing of Gaza, according to police and organizers.
New York police announced at least 200 arrests, and organizers said more than 300 people were arrested during the dispersal of the rally inside New York’s Grand Central station.
Photos taken at the scene showed long lines of handcuffed young people wearing black sweatshirts with the phrases “Not In Our Name” and “Cease Fire Now” printed in white. fire now).
Protesters demanding a ceasefire between Israel and Gaza occupy Grand Central Station in New York, October 27, 2023
AFP
The massive sit-in was organized by the group Jewish Voice for Peace-New York City, which said several thousand participants blocked the station’s main concourse. It is “the largest act of civil disobedience that New York City has seen in twenty years,” he said.
Images showed the terminal crowded with protesters holding banners reading “Palestinians must be free” and “Mourning the dead, fighting like hell for the living.”
Rabbis kicked off the event by lighting Shabbat candles and reciting Kaddish, the Jewish prayer for the dead.
“Shabbat is usually a day of rest, but we cannot afford to rest while a genocide is taking place in our name,” Rabbi May Ye said in a statement released by organizers.
Police officers take away demonstrators arrested during a sit-in demanding a ceasefire between Israel and Gaza, October 27, 2023 in New York
AFP
“The lives of Palestinians and Israelis are intertwined, and security can only come from justice, equality and freedom for all,” she added.
The Health Ministry of Hamas, the Palestinian Islamist movement in power in the Gaza Strip, affirmed that 7,326 people, mostly civilians including more than 3,000 children, have been killed in the Palestinian territory due to Israeli retaliatory bombings since on October 7.
More than 1,400 people were killed in Israel, mainly civilians massacred on October 7 by Hamas, the deadliest attack in Israeli history, according to the authorities.
2023-10-28 04:18:26
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